College World Series: Arizona advances to finals

OMAHA, Neb. — Arizona coach Andy Lopez couldn't imagine taking a hotter team to the College World Series finals.

That's where the Wildcats are heading after their 10-3 victory over Florida State on Thursday. They'll go into the best-of-three championship round Sunday coming off nine straight wins and 16 in their last 18 games.

"I'm not sure we're invincible. In fact, I'm quite confident we're not," Lopez said. "We're playing good baseball. But, honestly, we've done that for more than a weekend or so."

Florida State gave the Wildcats lots of help, committing three of their four errors in Arizona's six-run first inning.

Freshman starter Brandon Leibrandt was pulled after he recorded just one out for the Seminoles, who used eight pitchers to tie a CWS record for a nine-inning game.

Robert Refsnyder and Bobby Brown homered in a span of three at-bats in the fourth as the Wildcats built their lead to 10-1.

"About the easiest way to sum it up is say we got taken to the woodshed today," FSU coach Mike Martin said.

Kurt Heyer (13-2) worked 71?3 innings while taking the national lead for wins as the Wildcats (46-17) won Bracket 1.

Arizona will be playing for its fourth national championship and first since 1986 after losing in regionals the past two years. The Wildcats did not qualify for the NCAA tournament in 2009.

SOUTH CAROLINA 4, KENT ST. 1:Michael Roth pitched a two-hitter and two-time defending national champion South Carolina eliminated Kent State from the CWS.

The game had been postponed by rain Wednesday.

Grayson Greiner and Chase Vergason hit consecutive RBI singles in the second inning to erase Kent State's 1-0 lead. LB Dantzler homered in the third against Tyler Skulina (11-3).